Folks Are Angry Tarantino Didn’t Cast ‘People of Color’ for Film About White Manson Family Members

June 25, 2018 Victor Medina

Oscar-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is making a film about the Charles Manson murders in 1969, and he’s also getting a lot of criticism, after it was revealed that the cast is nearly all-white.

In a time where Hollywood is especially sensitive about casting people of color in films, every major film is under scrutiny to keep the cast as diverse as possible.

In the case of Taratino’s film, titled Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a number of people are openly criticizing it on social media for the lack of diversity with “people of color,” specifically, black people. If you’re thinking that criticism doesn’t make much sense, you aren’t alone.

The fault in the logic of the criticism is simple: none of the members of the Manson family were black or a person of color. The victims were white or Italian. Most of the major figures in the investigation and prosecution of the Manson family were white.

And still, people are upset that people of color weren’t cast to play some of those real-life white people.

It begs the question: do actors of color actually want to portray real-life members of a mass-murdering hippie cult who were all-white?

Even actual legitimate news sources and publications don’t get it. Christian Allaire of Vogue joined in the outrage, apparently oblivious to history.

The anger ignited when the movie site Rotten Tomatoes tweeted this collage of the actors cast for the film.

The incredible cast of Quentin Tarantino's 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' pic.twitter.com/TKgSeusMEi

— Rotten Tomatoes (@RottenTomatoes) June 19, 2018

While the criticism came from a number of sources, much of the attention is directed at this tweet by someone named Justin Frac, who is apparently a voice actor of some sort. He’s verified by Twitter, which means they think he’s important. Based on his tweets, Twitter may want to rethink that blue check mark.

https://twitter.com/JustinCentric/status/1010243197228986368

That brought out a flood of folks who were quick to point out that he needs to learn how to pick his battles, and maybe he doesn’t want to insist that people of color had anything to do with a mass murder.

Bro, as a progressive, why does this matter? When I think of ‘69 and the #MansonMurders I envision a bunch of white hippies. Seriously, if ever there’s a film that doesn’t have people that look “like me”, I want it to be a Manson flick! 😱

— 🥊🥋 📖🎬 Cuck Fovid-19 🌊 🥃 🌳 💵 (@MMAGamblingtips) June 23, 2018

Listen, we need diversity in films but we need to understand the context of the actual film. I don't know too much about the back story but I haven't read about the role of any black folks in the Manson murder or subsequent prosecution case. 🙇‍♂️ https://t.co/b5i97Ol4kW

— Post Alone (@craigflixchill) June 22, 2018

Comedian Chris D’Elia had one of the better responses, burning Frac in the process.

These are the actual family members. Let’s do a movie about the KKK with Koreans too huh? Lol pic.twitter.com/H2wm5mJGhB

— Chris D'Elia (@chrisdelia) June 22, 2018

And then there were these responses.

Think about it like this, have you ever seen a WW2 movie where anyone other than white guys are nazis? Or any mafia movie where they have black guys in the Italian mob? No, because it’s be ridiculous to lie about actual history to appease people.

— Aaron (@AAgumdrops) June 23, 2018

I’m all for diversity, but I don’t recall any people of color being involved in the Manson murders. How and why are you mad??? pic.twitter.com/wrPaTOqvFZ

— Alexis Franklin (@alexisvicki) June 23, 2018

This tweet summed up the stupidity of the argument.

https://twitter.com/El_Gilbo/status/1010548469919076353

For the record, there were other idiots who jumped on the Manson family “diversity” train, only to see it derail spectacularly.

This woman is an actual sociologist. For those who don’t know, an “inclusion rider” is a contract stipulation actors ask for that requires minorities and women are given cast or crew roles.